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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27866814">Down by Two</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account'>orphan_account</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Gaang Plays Volleyball [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Beach Volleyball, F/M, Volleyball, everyone is actually tall instead of their short canon heights, ozai is a bad parent AND a bad coach, the gaang's in high school, there are OCs</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 09:13:30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,218</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27866814</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Volleyball. The Gaang. Eventual Zutara.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Suki (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>The Gaang Plays Volleyball [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/2044507</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>24</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Down by Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I think that is this going to be a collection of volleyball ficlets and they'll eventually lead to Zutara. This is based off of my experience playing volleyball and for any non volleyball players, I'll do my best to give y'all a dictionary at the end. This will be updated so sporadically, so apologies in advance. Rating it teen because they're teenagers and I have no clue what's going to happen next. This wasn't beta read and I basically copy and pasted everything from the Google Doc so please let me know if you see a typo or something. I also have no idea how to ao3 so there's a thought that isn't italicized and it's bothering me but whatever</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They’re down by two but that doesn’t matter. Anyone can come back from that. </p><p>From the net, Suki yells, “Sideout right here, girls! We got it! Set’s dead, they’ve got three hitters. I’ve got thirteen.” </p><p>Katara crouches lower. </p><p>“I’ve got six!” Song yells. While she’s playing back row for serve receive, she’s really an outside hitter. </p><p>“Song, I got your short, Jin, I got your deep,” she says. To the rest of the team, she calls, “Deep server, deep server!” </p><p>The girl serving, a lithe girl who doesn’t look like she could hold enough power to get the ball over the net, serves directly to Katara. She digs it, giving Yue a high ball as she and Jin split the court. Yue sets to Suki, who has one of the highest verticals Katara has ever seen, except for maybe the girl across the net from Suki. Katara is momentarily distracted because of the oddness of this girl-- no volleyball player wears that much eyeliner. She misses Suki’s kill, unfortunately, but she’s still there, congratulating her. She can hear Sokka and Aang from the stands going absolutely insane. Katara’s almost positive Sokka might faint from his sheer admiration of Suki. </p><p>Jin and Meng sub for each other as Song goes back to serve. Katara keeps her eyes focused on the other team. Their middle looks especially mad they lost the last point. </p><p>There’s a quick rally, in which Avatar wins, after Meng gives a tip to the middle of the court, where no one was on defense. The score is now tied at 24-24. </p><p>
 <i> We’re going to twenty-six <em>, Katara thinks grimly as Song serves once more. The lithe girl on the other team passes it to their setter, who sets it to their right side. Katara frowns as she moves into defense. It makes much more sense for the setter to go middle --that was almost a perfect pass-- but she guesses the move was meant to throw her off. No such luck, as Suki gets another kill from Katara’s pass. 
</em></i></p><p>
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    <em></em>
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</p><p>Song’s next serve is deceptively short but the Club Ozai’s middle gets a decent pass to their setter, who dumps it over the net. Katara rushes forward, sliding to get to the ball. She doesn’t know if she made the ball playable but she can hear Sokka screaming in the stands so she assumes she did. She watches Song give the opposing team a free ball and slides into defense, making sure to watch the other setter. She looks like she’s going to set their back row but pushes the ball to their outside. It’s a line hit and Song digs it. </p><p>
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    <em></em>
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</p><p>“Pipe, pipe, pipe!” Katara calls and Yue sets the ball to her. She hits it and the ball goes so far into the back row, Katara’s afraid she’s hit it out. </p><p>
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</p><p>The line judge calls it in. </p><p>
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</p><p>Everyone crashes into her, jumping up and down and screaming. They’re going to three games. </p><p>
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</p><p>“Okay, girls,” Coach Hama says, once she’s given their line up to the down ref. “Yue in one, Song in two, June in three, Suki in four, Jin in five, Katara in six. Katara, you’ll sub for On Ji and then go back row for Suki after she serves. Meng, you’ll sub for Jin. Yue, you’ll set front row if we get to that, okay? Try to get a streak going, girls.” </p><p>
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</p><p>Katara casts a quick glance over to the Fire Lords. Their coach is yelling at them, making her eternally grateful that Coach Hama has never yelled. Her coach follows her gaze and gives a little scoff. </p><p>
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</p><p>“We’ve got it,” Hama says. “Avatar on three.” </p><p>
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</p><p>“One, two, three Avatar!” the girls cheer and jog onto their respective places on the court. </p><p>
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</p><p>They win the third game. </p><p>
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</p><p>Club Ozai was angry. When you get angry, your hits have more power. And you tend to forget to snap your wrist. </p><p>
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</p><p>Suki has said this over and over and she’s saying it now. </p><p>
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</p><p>“Oh, yeah,” Sokka is saying, nodding vigorously. “Yeah, totally.” </p><p>
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</p><p>“I’m just glad the coaches at Avatar aren’t like that,” Aang says, watching the Club Ozai’s coach angrily berate them again. </p><p>
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</p><p>“Me too,” Katara agrees, taking a swig out of her water bottle. She waves to Jin and Song as they leave. Jun has already left and Yue is talking to her father, Coach Hama, and Meng. </p><p>
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</p><p>Suki pulls her hair out of her topknot and asks, “Where’s Toph? I thought she’d be able to come to this tournament.” </p><p>
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    <em></em>
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</p><p>“No,” Aang replies with a shake of his head. “Her parents dragged her to some dinner.” </p><p>
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</p><p>“Oh, boo,” Suki says. </p><p>
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</p><p>“Uh huh,” Sokka says, watching Suki carefully. “But now we have time to work on my ones, remember?” </p><p>
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</p><p>“Okay,” Suki says. “Let’s just make sure no one’s playing after us.” </p><p>
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</p><p>She walks over to Coach Hama to ask while Katara, Aang and Sokka wait. </p><p>
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</p><p>“Katara, Sokka, I’m going to go now,” their grandmother says, coming over from talking to Meng’s parents. “Can you get a ride home?” </p><p>
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    <em></em>
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</p><p>“Yeah, we’ll find one Gran-Gran,” Katara says. Sokka reluctantly accepts a kiss on the head. Suki comes over with a thumbs up as Katara drops her bag with Aang and says, “I’m going to the bathroom.” </p><p>
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</p><p>She does her business. After washing her hands, Katara does her best to comb back her hair’s frizziness to no avail and heads out of the bathroom checking her phone. </p><p>
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</p><p>She looks up in time to dodge a boy holding an insane amount of bags but he bumps into her anyway, mostly because he can’t really see where he’s going, from what Katara can tell. </p><p>
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</p><p>“Watch it!” he snaps. </p><p>
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</p><p>“You bumped into me,” she replies, a little shocked. </p><p>
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</p><p>“You should still watch where you’re going,” he says crossly, which is when Katara notices the Club Ozai logo on the bags. </p><p>
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</p><p>“You’re just sore you lost,” she says, and flounces past him as he makes a scoffing sound. Was the flounce necessary? No, but everything Club Ozai does is unnecessary, so really, Katara was just throwing it back in their faces. </p><p>
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</p><p>Suki is setting to Sokka when she returns. Aang is tossing Suki balls, which leaves Katara to shag. She convinces Aang to switch with her when she starts telling him about the guy she ran into. </p><p>
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</p><p>“Did he have a scar?” Aang asks</p><p>
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</p><p>“I don’t know. It was hard to tell. Maybe?” Katara replies. </p><p>
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</p><p>“If he had a scar,” Sokka says from the net, after he misses another one of Suki’s sets, “He’s probably Ozai’s son. You were playing his daughter, actually.” </p><p>
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</p><p>“We were?” Katara says. “Who was she?” </p><p>
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</p><p>“The setter,” Aang says. “She plays indoor and her brother plays beach. We’ve played against him a couple of times.” </p><p>
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</p><p>“We’ve lost against him,” Sokka corrects. “He’s really good. He plays with Jet.” </p><p>
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</p><p>Katara gags as Suki rolls her eyes. </p><p>
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</p><p>“Say what you want about Jet,” Suki says. “But he’s a really good volleyball player, you can’t deny that.” </p><p>
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</p><p>As Sokka misses another set, she sighs in exasperation. “You’re going too late. You should be moving the second you see the ball out of the corner of your eye.” </p><p>
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</p><p>“Whatever,” Sokka huffs as he turns back to Katara. “Anyway, if you see him again, Katara, you should steer clear. That family is trouble.”</p><p>
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  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Me, ending it on Sokka being ominous and kinda mean bc he doesn’t know AwkwardTurtleduck! Zuko? Yup. I did my best to demonstrate serve receive but I'm a middle and Katara is libero so I have no idea if it's correct.<br/>I wasn’t about to use Pakku as a coach, the gross misogynist, so Hama is not evil she just really hates Club Ozai lmao. On that note, yes, Ozai is so vain that he named his own club after him. The most unrealistic thing about this so far? Katara can hear Sokka in the stands which is near impossible. I have trouble hearing the coaches and they’re right next to the court but maybe I just have bad hearing or something </p><p>Dictionary: </p><p>Set’s dead- the setter is setting from back row<br/>Suki and Song calling the numbers- which hitters they’re blocking (jersey numbers)<br/>Short- in front of or right behind the ten foot line<br/>Deep- farther back in the court<br/>Kill- a ball that was hit and either hits in the court or is shanked on the first touch<br/>Shank- you touch the ball but it goes out and no one can get to it (think a pass going way behind someone)<br/>Vertical- how high you can jump<br/>Dump- a tip, but with two hands from the setter<br/>Pipe- the call for middle back<br/>Line judge- the guy standing outside the corner of the court calling the ball in or out<br/>“Yue in one, Song in two,” etc- the numbers are the positions on the court<br/>Ones- a ball that’s set right above the net, only run with middle blockers<br/>Shag- fetching balls</p><p>Katara- libero<br/>Yue- setter<br/>Suki- middle blocker<br/>Song- outside hitter<br/>Jin- left back<br/>June- right side<br/>Meng- Jin’s sub (outside)<br/>On Ji- middle (Katara’s sub)</p><p> </p><p>Azula- setter<br/>Ty Lee- all around player<br/>Mai- middle<br/>The rest are OCs that don't have any name right now, whoops</p></blockquote></div></div>
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